Poems (Elgee, 1907)/To a despondent nationalist
TO A DESPONDENT NATIONALIST.
I.
HEREFORE wail you for the harp? Is it broken?
Have the bold hands that once struck it weaker grown?
Can false words, by false traitors spoken,
Blight a cause which we know is God's own?
No coward hearts are with us that would falter,
Tho' a thousand tyrants strove to crush us low;
No coward pen the daring words to alter,
That we fling in haughty scorn 'gainst the foe.
HEREFORE wail you for the harp? Is it broken?Have the bold hands that once struck it weaker grown?
Can false words, by false traitors spoken,
Blight a cause which we know is God's own?
No coward hearts are with us that would falter,
Tho' a thousand tyrants strove to crush us low;
No coward pen the daring words to alter,
That we fling in haughty scorn 'gainst the foe.
II.
Who has doomed, or can dare "doom us to silence?"
In the conscious pride of truth and right we stand
Let them rave like the ocean round the islands,
Firm as they we stand unmoved for Fatherland.
Ay, we'll "till," spite of banded foes who hate us—
But to rear the tree of Freedom God hath given;
Ay, we'll toil—but for triumphs that await us,
If not leading to the Capitol—to Heaven.
Who has doomed, or can dare "doom us to silence?"
In the conscious pride of truth and right we stand
Let them rave like the ocean round the islands,
Firm as they we stand unmoved for Fatherland.
Ay, we'll "till," spite of banded foes who hate us—
But to rear the tree of Freedom God hath given;
Ay, we'll toil—but for triumphs that await us,
If not leading to the Capitol—to Heaven.
III.
Shall we mourn if we're martyrs for the truth?
God has ever tried His noblest by the cross—
Let us bless Him that we're worthy in our youth,
For Country, truth, and right to suffer loss.
So the word that we have spoken be immortal,
Little reck we tho' no glory may be won;
If of God, it will scorn ban of mortal—
Standing ever as the archetypal sun.
Shall we mourn if we're martyrs for the truth?
God has ever tried His noblest by the cross—
Let us bless Him that we're worthy in our youth,
For Country, truth, and right to suffer loss.
So the word that we have spoken be immortal,
Little reck we tho' no glory may be won;
If of God, it will scorn ban of mortal—
Standing ever as the archetypal sun.
IV.
True, the path is dark, but ever sunward,
In faith, and love, and hope we journey on;
We may pause in the desert passing onward,
Lay our weary heads to rest upon the stone;
But ever in our visions, low and faintly,
Come the voices of the far-off angel band,
To earnest souls, in prophecy all saintly,
That the good cause will yet triumph in the land.
True, the path is dark, but ever sunward,
In faith, and love, and hope we journey on;
We may pause in the desert passing onward,
Lay our weary heads to rest upon the stone;
But ever in our visions, low and faintly,
Come the voices of the far-off angel band,
To earnest souls, in prophecy all saintly,
That the good cause will yet triumph in the land.
V.
Fear not, oh! my brother, then, that any
Will hush Ierne's harp at man's command;
For phylacteries of misery too many,
Are bound upon all foreheads in the land.
Let others bow in abject genuflexion—
Sue from Pity what they ought to claim as right;
By God's grace we'll stand by our election—
Freedom, Knowledge, Independence, Truth, and Light!
Fear not, oh! my brother, then, that any
Will hush Ierne's harp at man's command;
For phylacteries of misery too many,
Are bound upon all foreheads in the land.
Let others bow in abject genuflexion—
Sue from Pity what they ought to claim as right;
By God's grace we'll stand by our election—
Freedom, Knowledge, Independence, Truth, and Light!